Before Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Julius Erving, or Michael Jordan -- before Magic Johnson and Showtime -- the Harlem Globetrotters revolutionized basketball and spread the game around the world. In Spinning the Globe: The Rise, Fall, and Return to Greatness of the Harlem Globetrotters, author Ben Green tells the story of this extraordinary franchise and iconic American institution.
While millions of fans have been entertained by the Globetrotters, the true story of their amazing eighty years as a team has never been told. With lyrical prose and masterful story-telling, Green chronicles the Globetrotters' rise from backwoods obscurity during the harsh years of the Great Depression to become the best basketball team in the country and, by the early 1950s, the most popular sports franchise in the world.
Through original research, Green also uncovers intriguing controversies about the Globetrotters' origins, their image in the African American community, and how they were used as a propaganda weapon during the Cold War. Green renders captivating portraits of founder Abe Saperstein and the players who defined the Trotters' legacy, including Inman Jackson, Goose Tatum, Marques Haynes, Meadowlark Lemon, and Curly Neal. He descibes the Trotters' struggles to overcome racial discrimination and internal dissension on their long road to glory.
In equally vivid terms, Green details the Globetrotters' fall from grace to the brink of bankruptcy in the early 1990s, and the ultimate rebirth under owner Mannie Jackson.
At every turn of the narrative, Ben Green illustrates the surprising connections that link the Globetrotters' story to the complex issues of race and sport in America, and skillfully weaves a social history of America into the Trotters' saga.
Of their formative years, he writes: "The Harlem Globetrotters were not just a great barnstorming team; they were a sociology class on wheels, bringing black hoops and black culture to a hundred midwestern towns that had seen neither, and in the process transforming Dr. James Naismith's stodgy, wearisome game -- which was still sometimes played in chicken-wire cages by roughneck immigrants with flailing elbows and bloodied skulls, a sport more resembling rugby -- into an orchestration of speed, fluidity, motion, dazzling skill, and, most improbably, inspired comedy."
After playing more than 20,000 games in over 100 countries, before millions of fans, the Harlem Globetrotters truly belong to the world. This is their story.

Spinning the Globe: The Rise, Fall, and Return to Greatness of the Harlem Globetrotters

History

GREEN, BEN

Historical Study & Educational Resources

Amistad

Before Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Julius Erving, or Michael Jordan––before Magic Johnson and Showtime––the Harlem Globetrotters revolutionized basketball and spread the game around the world. In Spinning the Globe, author Ben Green tells the story of this extraordinary franchise and iconic American institution. We follow the Globetrotters' rise from backwoods obscurity during the harsh years of the Great Depression to become the best basketball team in the country and, by the early 1950s, the most popular sports franchise in the world. Green brings to life their struggles with racism and segregation, and their influence upon a nation's views about race and sport. We witness the Globetrotters' fall from grace to the brink of bankruptcy in the early 1990s, and their ultimate rebirth under Mannie Jackson today, as they once again amaze kids and families around the world. Now in paperback, this is the true and complete story of their amazing eighty years as a team, told with lyrical prose and masterful storytelling by Ben Green.

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Why technology is not an end in itself, and how cities can be “smart enough,” using technology to promote democracy and equity.
Smart cities, where technology is used to solve every problem, are hailed as futuristic urban utopias. We are promised that apps, algorithms, and artificial intelligence will relieve congestion, restore democracy, prevent crime, and improve public services. In The Smart Enough City, Ben Green warns against seeing the city only through the lens of technology; taking an exclusively technical view of urban life will lead to cities that appear smart but under the surface are rife with injustice and inequality. He proposes instead that cities strive to be “smart enough”: to embrace technology as a powerful tool when used in conjunction with other forms of social change―but not to value technology as an end in itself.
In a technology-centric smart city, self-driving cars have the run of downtown and force out pedestrians, civic engagement is limited to requesting services through an app, police use algorithms to justify and perpetuate racist practices, and governments and private companies surveil public space to control behavior. Green describes smart city efforts gone wrong but also smart enough alternatives, attainable with the help of technology but not reducible to technology: a livable city, a democratic city, a just city, a responsible city, and an innovative city. By recognizing the complexity of urban life rather than merely seeing the city as something to optimize, these Smart Enough Cities successfully incorporate technology into a holistic vision of justice and equity.

The Smart Enough City: Putting Technology in Its Place to Reclaim Our Urban Future (Strong Ideas)

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Mit Pr

Why technology is not an end in itself, and how cities can be “smart enough,” using technology to promote democracy and equity. 
Smart cities, where technology is used to solve every problem, are hailed as futuristic urban utopias. We are promised that apps, algorithms, and artificial intelligence will relieve congestion, restore democracy, prevent crime, and improve public services. In The Smart Enough City, Ben Green warns against seeing the city only through the lens of technology; taking an exclusively technical view of urban life will lead to cities that appear smart but under the surface are rife with injustice and inequality. He proposes instead that cities strive to be “smart enough”: to embrace technology as a powerful tool when used in conjunction with other forms of social change—but not to value technology as an end in itself. 
In a technology-centric smart city, self-driving cars have the run of downtown and force out pedestrians, civic engagement is limited to requesting services through an app, police use algorithms to justify and perpetuate racist practices, and governments and private companies surveil public space to control behavior. Green describes smart city efforts gone wrong but also smart enough alternatives, attainable with the help of technology but not reducible to technology: a livable city, a democratic city, a just city, a responsible city, and an innovative city. By recognizing the complexity of urban life rather than merely seeing the city as something to optimize, these Smart Enough Cities successfully incorporate technology into a holistic vision of justice and equity.

The MIT Press

Peak Music Experiences (Routledge Studies in Popular Music)

Arts & Photography

Music

Routledge

Peak Music Experiences: A New Perspective on Popular music, Identity and Scenes (Routledge Studies in Popular Music)

An account of the mercenary killer whose classified ad in "Soldier of Fortune" magazine was answered by Debbie Bannister discusses ex-Marine John Wayne Hearn's obsessive love for Bannister and his acceptance of her murder-for-hire assignment

The Soldier of Fortune Murders

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

DELACORTE PRESS

Relates the murder case and trial of a Vietnam veteran who advertised himself as a hit man in Soldier of Fortune magazine and became obsessed with a woman who hired him to murder her brother-in-law. Reprint.

True Crime

Dell

Part biography and part detective story, this examination of the life and still unsolved assassination of Harry Moore, a man who fought for racial equality in Florida well before the civil rights movement caught on, reveals two possibly bungled FBI investigations. 20,000 first printing.

Before His Time: The Untold Story of Harry T. Moore, America's First Civil Rights Martyr

Free Press

This volume contains material on how to study and succeed in the MRCPsych examination, both Parts One and Two. The book should be useful for all those taking an increasingly difficult examination.

The MRCPsych study manual

Medical Books

Medicine

Springer

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by GREEN, BEN. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by GREEN, BEN

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by GREEN, BEN. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Spinning the Globe: The Rise, Fall, and Return to Greatness of the Harlem Globetrotters

Spinning the Globe: The Rise, Fall, and Return to Greatness of the Harlem Globetrotters

The Smart Enough City: Putting Technology in Its Place to Reclaim Our Urban Future (Strong Ideas)

The Smart Enough City: Putting Technology in Its Place to Reclaim Our Urban Future (Strong Ideas)

Peak Music Experiences (Routledge Studies in Popular Music)

Peak Music Experiences: A New Perspective on Popular music, Identity and Scenes (Routledge Studies in Popular Music)

The Soldier of Fortune Murders

The Soldier of Fortune Murders

Before His Time: The Untold Story of Harry T. Moore, America's First Civil Rights Martyr

The MRCPsych study manual